With Friends Like These
by annaMoon81
Summary: Why did Sirius send Snape to the Willow? Was James really in on it? What was Remus’ reaction? This story features Snape, Sirius, and Remus towards the end of OotP, each remembering their part in The Prank.


**With Friends Like These...**  
  
"Scourgify."

Severus Snape lowered his wand and examined his cauldron, which, a moment before, had contained the remainder of a smoking potion. Satisfied, he pocketed the wand and quickly and efficiently began to situate the various bottled ingredients on the table next to the cauldron back to their proper places on his shelf.

"Apothecary, indeed," he muttered to himself as he worked. "He _should _go to the apothecary...like I have time for this..." As he placed a final jar on the topmost shelf, his sleeve fell back, revealing a sizable bruise on his right forearm. Its' bright green color, which was beginning to darken towards the center, revealed that it was a relatively new injury. Snape scowled at it.

"Arrogant bastard."

He grabbed another jar labeled "murtlap" off of the shelf, opened it, and began briskly applying the solution on the inflicted area. As he screwed the lid back onto the jar, his eyes drifted over to the only window in the room. Lost in thought, he half-watched as the last rays of sunlight slid out of sight, and the pale outline of the full moon became more visible against the darkening sky....  
  
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__

_Panting, he dodged another swinging branch and jabbed the stick he was carrying at the knot at the bottom of the tree. Miss...he ducked just in time as yet another branch swooped heavily just inches above his head...another miss...and another...and then... _

_"Ha!" he gasped triumphantly. The tree fell still, and he watched astonished, as an entrance was revealed at the base of the trunk. _

_Later, he would barely remember running, running down the dark, low passage. He was focused, intent on his goal. He was not, however, stupid: his wand was out and at the ready the entire time. Finally he saw it: a door at the end of the passage. Wand raised, adrenaline pumping through his body, he put his hand on the knob. _

_"I'll have you now," he said softly. _

_He pushed open the door. His wand fell useless to his side as he gazed at the sight in front of him. _

_It was a boy...but it wasn't. His teeth were long and sharp...they were getting sharper by the second. His nose was lengthening...fur was sprouting all over his body...but his eyes, his eyes were still human. They locked onto Snape's. The emotions he saw in them mirrored his own: terror, panic, and then...recognition. _

_Lupin. _

_A moment later, Lupin was gone. In his place was a wolf, a wolf that was now snarling, crouching, ready to pounce...a wolf that had nothing in his eyes but the desire for blood. _

_Snape stood there dumbly, staring, until a strangled yell behind him made him jump. A strong hand grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him back out into the_ _passage. Snape hit the ground and cried out at the searing pain that shot through his right arm; he looked up in time to see a dark-haired boy slam the door shut, glasses askew on his face. A fraction of a second later they both heard the wolf slam into the other side. _

_"C'mon, move!" James cried. Snape didn't budge. With an impatient groan, James grabbed his left arm, pulled him to his feet, and began to drag him down the passage. _

_Several minutes later, they heard movement ahead of them. The next moment they were joined by another boy, one who was slightly pudgy, fair-haired, and quite out of breath. _

_"He didn't get him!" Peter gasped, looking weak with relief. These words jogged Snape to his senses. He jerked his arm out of James' grip and stumbled back against the wall, staring at James in shock. _

_"Black...he...he tried to kill me!" _

_James leaned over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. __"__Snape, listen..." he said insistently. _

_"He tried to kill me!" _

_"Shut up and just listen for a second, would you?" _

_"NO!!" Snape backed away from the other two boys, cradling his right arm. "Get away...don't come near me...I'll tell Dumbledore you were in on it too...you'll all be expelled_..."

_"JUST SHUT UP AND_ _LISTEN, WOULD YOU?!" _

_Snape shook his head wildly and stumbled back a few more steps, then turned and ran the rest of the way out of the passage._

"Stupid git."

Sirius Black was pacing. He walked over to a bookshelf, picked up a book, then set it back down. He ran his fingers carelessly through his hair.

"Stupid bloody git...."

Walking over to the door, he put his hand on the knob, then paused, brow furrowed. Shaking his head, he pulled his hand back and growled.

"Stupid, bloody, greasy git."

The pacing resumed. He wandered over to his dresser and began shuffling papers and clippings from the Daily Prophet around. An advertisement for a new joke shop in Diagon Alley bearing the simple heading WWW caught his eye, and he picked it up, smirking as he read the footnote at the bottom: "Special thanks to Messrs. Moony and Padfoot for their magical mischief- making aid." His eyes fell from the parchment to the object it had been covering.

The mirror.

Sirius swallowed hard, looking at it. After a moment, he wrapped his fingers around the handle, then lifted it to eye-level.

"Harry."

Silence. Of course. The same response he got every time. He sighed in frustration. A fat lot of good it had done, giving Harry the other mirror, Sirius thought to himself. He was so worried about Sirius getting caught that he had probably avoided even opening the package. It just wasn't worth the risk. Sirius closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, staring into the glass. He hesitated.

"James."

He waited a moment, then smiled bitterly. "Every time," he said softly. Gazing into the mirror at his reflection, Sirius wondered fleetingly how many detentions he had spent conspiring with James through the mirrors. It was ironic, really, he reflected, that most of the pranks they pulled had been carefully planned while they were supposed to be repenting for previous pranks. Detentions were fun, much unlike Harry's frequent detentions with that cow Umbridge probably were...a menacing rumble issued from the back of Sirius' throat... and, despite how Harry felt about it, he thought, narrowing his eyes, risks were fun too... well, most of them were...  
  
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_Sirius drummed his fingers nervously on the parchment he was supposed to be writing on. His eyes darted to McGonagall, sitting behind her desk, then quickly back down to his essay, which was entitled "_Why Turning Hair Ribbons to Earthworms is NOT an Appropriate Example of Invertebrate Transfiguration in the Classroom_." A smirk almost found its way to his lips, but the anxious knot in his stomach stopped it almost immediately. _

_"Professor?" _

_Both McGonagall and Sirius' heads snapped up simultaneously. Sirius vaguely recognized the fourth year girl with the short brown hair in the doorway as a Ravenclaw. She glanced over at him and promptly blushed. _

_McGonagall, nostrils flaring slightly, said, "Yes, Ms. Henderson?" _

_"Oh! Um..." she stammered as she tore her eyes off of Sirius. "I-I wanted to talk to you about my last exam grade." _

_"Of course," said McGonagall. "I believe those tests are in the staff room; come with me." She stood up, shuffling a few papers together. _

_"Mr. Black," she said, looking at him sternly over her glasses,"I shall return soon. Can I trust that my office will remain intact while I am gone?" _

_"What? Oh, of course, Professor." Sirius said, rather distantly. McGonagall eyed him beadily for a moment, then headed towards the door. The girl smiled timidly at Sirius, who smiled back distractedly. He was rewarded with a nervous giggle. _

_"Come along, Ms. Henderson," said McGonagall briskly, and as they left the room Sirius was sure he saw McGonagall roll her eyes ever so slightly. _

_As soon as the door shut behind them, Sirius_ _reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out the mirror. "James!" he said, staring at his own uneasy reflection, a trace of panic in his voice. He closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe deeply. A second later, James' face appeared, grinning broadly. _

_"Hey, Padfoot!" he said cheerfully. His head was moving slightly up and down, and there was a rustling noise in the background; Sirius was sure James was walking. _

_"You having a good time with McGonagall?" James waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Sirius attempted to laugh. _

_"She just stepped out to grab another bottle of wine," he joked half- heartedly. James grinned. _

_"Ah, Sirius, why must you chase the cat?" _

_"Nothin' but the dog in me," Sirius quipped back, and James snickered. _

_"Listen, James, you haven't seen Snivellus lurking around, have you?" _Stay calm, keep it casual, _he_ _told himself. _

_"Uh, no, not since after class. Why?" Sirius grimaced. _

_"It's just...he knows that Remus isn't in the infirmary. He saw Pomfrey taking him to the Willow last month. He told me today. He said he was going to find out what_ _we were up to...slimy git." he added. James' brow knitted. _

_"Did he see anything else?" Sirius hesitated. "No," he said at last. "He just said he saw Remus 'disappear' somewhere around the Willow." James' face relaxed. _

_"No big deal," he said. "If he tried to follow us, he's out of luck, because Wormtail and I are under the Cloak. And if he's already at the Willow...well, we'll just have to frighten him off." James grinned wickedly. Sirius tried to grin back. _

_"Sounds fun," he said as nonchalantly as possible. "And if he's in the passage already, I guess you could just, you know, stun him or something, and drag him out." _

_The rustling noise stopped abruptly, he heard a muffled squeak, and James stared at Sirius, all smiles gone. _

_"Why would he be in the passage?" he asked slowly. Sirius didn't reply. _

_"Sirius,_ why would Snape be in the passage?" _said James urgently. Sirius opened his mouth, then closed it wordlessly. _

_"You told him?" _

_"I..." _

_James' face disappeared from sight. Sirius heard a rustling sound, then James' frantic voice: _

_"I solemnly_ _swear that I am up to no good." _

_There was a deafening silence for a moment, then a frightened gasp and a loud swear. A split second later, with a muffled thump, the connection was broken.  
_

Jar of murtlap back in place on the shelf, Snape opened a drawer and removed a roll of gauze. He shut the drawer rather harder than he had intended, causing a goblet sitting on one of the shelves to fall over. Glowering, Snape grabbed it roughly and slammed it down upright.

A few hours earlier, he had walked into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place with a similar smoking goblet in hand.

Sirius, who was lounging back in one of the chairs surrounding the table, had eyed it, obviously irritated. He had turned to his weary-looking companion and said casually, "You know, there's an apothecary two streets down that could probably make that stuff."

Snape had scowled at these words. He set the goblet down on the table with a loud thunk that shook the two bottles of butterbeer already there and turned to glare at the dark-haired man.

"Or better yet, you should try making it, Black. You might as well be doing something of use around here." Sirius had straightened in his chair. Next to him, Remus tensed.

"Severus, you know very well that Sirius would be of no use outside of this house," he had said quickly. "It's far too risky. He does what he can for us here."

"Sure he does, Lupin," Snape had sneered. "I wouldn't expect him to take any risks for people he claims to care about...especially you."

Sirius had stood so fast his chair fell back with a crash.

"I've taken plenty of risks for people I care about, including Remus!"

"What exactly are you referring to, Black?" Snape had said softly, a triumphant gleam in his eye. "Becoming an Animagus so you could have an excuse to run rampant once a month? Or perhaps you meant sending him a boy he could make a fellow monster out of..."

Sirius had gone pale. His breathing was suddenly very shallow.

"Enough."

Remus had stood, goblet in hand. He avoided eye contact with both of them.

"Thank you for the potion, Severus," he had said quietly, yet firmly. Without another word he had walked swiftly out of the kitchen, leaving the two black-haired men staring at each other with looks of utmost contempt.  
  
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_"Why don't you get out of my way, you slimy git." _

_Snape stood up quickly; he had fallen a few seconds earlier after rounding the corner too quickly and running into Sirius Black. Next to him, James and Peter were laughing. _

_"And pick up my books, Snivelly. You knocked them out of my hands," Sirius added as an afterthought. _

_Snarling, Snape plunged his hand in his robes for his wand. James and Sirius immediately followed suit, but before the first wand was drawn, a voice interrupted them. _

_"Problems, gentlemen?" _

_"No, Professor McGonagall," James said quickly, withdrawing his hand. Sirius and Snape did the same, though slowly. _

_"Mr. Black, you will be serving your detention for last Tuesday's incident tonight in my office," McGonagall said briskly. Sirius tore his eyes off of Snape. _

_"Tonight?" he repeated. "No, no, professor, I really can't do it tonight. Please, can I do it tomorrow instead?" Snape saw James and Peter glance at each other worriedly. McGonagall pursed her lips. _

_"I am sorry, Mr. Black, but detentions aren't meant_ _to be convenient. Be in my office at 7:00 sharp." With that, she swept off down the hall. _

_"Tough break, Padfoot," said James, clapping Sirius on the shoulder. Sirius just stood there, fuming. _

_"As for you, Snivelly," James said, turning to Snape, "You're just..." _

_His eyes suddenly focused on something behind Snape. _

_"You're just...you're just lucky McGonagall was here." _

_A girl with long, thick red hair was now walking down the corridor. As she passed the boys, James called out, "Evans! Hey, Evans!" _

_"Sod off, Potter!" _

_"No Evans, seriously," James went on as he trotted after her. "I need some tutoring in Charms. C'mon, help me out." Peter was following James down the hallway._

_"But didn't you get a 96% on the last Charms exam?" he asked, sounding bewildered. _

_"Shut it, Wormtail!" James hissed, socking him on the arm_ _as they turned the corner. _

_Snape had not taken his eyes of off Sirius. _

_"Plans for tonight ruined, are they?" Sirius snapped to attention. _

_"What?" he said, looking at Snape uncertainly as if he'd forgotten where he was. He narrowed his eyes stepped forward menacingly. "What did you say?" _

_"Your plans for tonight. You'll be missing out on all the fun, I suppose," Snape said, very softly. The two boys stood there, eyes locked unblinkingly. Finally, Sirius spoke. _

_"You don't know anything." _

_Snape smirked. "Don't I, Black?" He bent down to pick up his books, tossing them one by one into his bag. Straightening up, he added smoothly, "Maybe I'll join them tonight, instead." _

_"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked jerkily. His breathing was very shallow. "_

_Potter and his little subordinate. They'll be visiting Lupin, won't they? He's sick again...although, funny thing, last time he was ill he wasn't in the infirmary." Snape smiled inwardly at the look on Sirius' face. He said his next words with relish. _

_"Last time he was sick, I saw him walking with Pomfrey out to_ _that Whomping Willow." _

_Sirius paled. Snape's eyes glinted. _

_"And what," Sirius whispered finally, "did you see next?" _

_"Well," said Snape mildly, "actually, he just disappeared. I was rather disappointed, to be honest with you. That weak little half-blood is such a pathetic waste of space, I was hoping Pomfrey was going to let the Willow beat him to death so she wouldn't have to put up with him anymore." In a flash, Sirius grabbed the neck of Snape's robes and slammed him into the wall. _

_"Weak?" he snarled. "Pathetic? Why don't you try poking the knot at the bottom of that tree when you go tonight. Then we'll see who's weak and pathetic." Immediately after he said these words, his expression froze. Snape, taking advantage of his suddenly loose grip, yanked away and backed up a few steps down the corridor. _

_"The knot?" he said softly, triumphantly. Panic flashed across Sirius' face. _

_"Slip of the tongue, Black?" Snape went on, an expression of ecstacy on his face. "I guess we'll find out tonight..." _

_"No!" Sirius said sharply. "No, Snape, listen-" "_

_No, _you_ listen!" Snape hissed. "Did you think you and your friends would get away with breaking the rules forever? Were you really so arrogant as to think you'd never get caught?" _

_"Shut up, you idiot, just listen to me, you can't go to the Wi—" _

_"_You_ shut up!" Snape cried, his eyes popping slightly. "You'll be expelled this time, you and your friends, I'll see to it..." And with that, he took off down the hall. _

_"FINE!" Sirius yelled after him in frustration. "Go to the Willow tonight, and see what happens to you!"  
_

The sky was a deep blue now, and the moon shone brightly in a sea of stars. Sirius watched it apprehensively.

_I should be there._

He shook his head as if to get rid of this thought. "But he doesn't want you there," he told himself firmly out loud. "He's made that perfectly clear."

Sirius strode purposefully over to the fireplace and aimed his wand at it. A moment later, a fire was crackling merrily. He threw himself into an old armchair and glanced at the bowl of Floo powder on the mantel. Would Umbridge still be watching the network? She had to be busy since she'd gotten rid of Dumbledore...no. Harry wouldn't want him to do it. Too _risky._ Too _dangerous._ He might be _caught._

The annoying part was, Harry was probably right.

_"You're less like your father than I thought."_

Sirius winced as he remembered these words.

"I was wrong, Harry," he said to the empty room. "You're more like him than you think..."  
  
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_"Why?" _

_James' face was expressionless. Sirius had never seen him look so grim. He found he couldn't answer. James spoke again in the same rigid voice. _

_"What were you thinking?" _

_"I thought...I mean...I figured you would stop him before he even got into the Willow," Sirius finally said hoarsely. _

_James, in an even tighter voice, said, "And what if I hadn't?" _

_"C'mon, Prongs, it's like you always say," Sirius said with a shaky attempt at a smile. "What fun is it without a little risk?" _

_James exploded. "A LITTLE RISK? This...this _prank_ could have cost two people their lives, one of whom you're supposed to care about. What do you think would have happened to Remus if he had bitten Snape, or killed him?" _

_Sirius stood there for a moment as if paralyzed, then brushed his hair out of his face and rolled his eyes. _

_"Give me a break, James, Snape shouldn't have gone down there in the first place-" _

_"So he would have deserved it, then?" _

_"He was trying to find out what was wrong with Remus!" Sirius shouted defensively. "He would have told everyone and had Remus thrown out!" _

_"And you told him exactly what he needed to know," James spat angrily. _

_The two boys glared at each other. Sirius broke the silence. _

_"Look, it's over, and nothing happened, no harm done, so let's just-" _

_"No harm done?" James repeated. "No harm..." He closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief, then turned and walked slowly to the door. Pausing, he looked back one last time over his shoulder. _

_"Sirius, grow up." _

_He shut the door firmly behind him.  
  
_

Still just like a spoiled brat that didn't get his way, Snape thought resentfully to himself as he tightened another layer of gauze around his arm. In nearly two decades, nothing had changed. _He_ hadn't changed. Impulsive threats, arrogant denial, mindless violence...Snape winced as he pulled the strip a little too firmly against his wound. Fresh pain shot through his arm, causing words exchanged earlier to replay in his mind.

_"Get out." _

_"I'm only telling the truth, Black, and you know it. You and Potter did a spectacular job helping him out...such good_ friends..."

"_GET OUT_!"

Snape grimaced as he recalled the impact of the still-full butterbeer bottle. Cradling his arm, the throbbing dulled thanks to the essence of murtlap, he sank onto his bed, rested his head against the pillow, and closed his eyes.

But sleep did not come.  
  
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__

_Slowly, the pale boy pried his eyes open. He looked blearily at his body, covered in bandages, then at the shapes surrounding his bed. James, Sirius, Peter, and...Dumbledore? But why was he... _

_Remus Lupin sat up with a gasp. "Snape!" he choked, staring around the room wildly. _

_"Calm down, Mr. Lupin," said Dumbledore in a reassuring voice. "Severus Snape is fine. You harmed no one last night...save, of course, yourself." _

_"But he got in...I saw him...I saw..." _

_Slowly, Remus' eyes widened in recollection. _

_"James..." _

_With what seemingly took a massive effort, James raised his eyes to meet Remus. This was evidently too difficult a gaze to hold, because he quickly averted his eyes to Dumbledore. Then they flickered over to Sirius. Finally, he met Remus' wide, hurt stare again. _

_"I'm sorry, Remus," he said in a controlled voice. "It wasn't supposed to go this far." _

_Sirius jerked his head up, staring at James with his mouth hanging open. Peters' eyes were the size of saucers. Dumbledore merely cleared his throat. _

_"I believe Mr. Lupin needs to get some rest. Gentlemen, if I could have a word with you in private..." His tone left no room for argument. As they turned to leave, they all saw the tears in Remus' eyes, and the word _why_ barely formed on his lips. But none of them saw the boy in the next bed peering through his curtains, cradling his broken arm, glaring at them with a fury beyond words as they walked out of the infirmary._

There were twenty-seven cracks in one of the stone walls in the basement of Grimmauld Place. At least, that's what Remus Lupin had counted. He was sitting on the cold floor, knees pulled into his chest, counting out loud. The wall with the door had thirty-two, and the wall opposite that had eighteen.

Waiting for the transformation was the worst part. He was used to the pain by now, used to fighting the pointless desire for human flesh, used to battling it by himself. That was bad, but being alone with his thoughts was worse.

"..._a fellow monster_..."

Remus smiled bitterly to himself. He had had "fellow monsters" at one point in his life, but that was a long time ago. It was hard to believe now that there had once been a time when he looked forward to the full moon. During his last two-and-a-half years at Hogwarts, this curse had brought him some of his fondest memories. As well as some of his worst...

"James," Remus said softly aloud, "Why did you do it?"  
  
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_"Because he would have been expelled, Remus," said James quietly. "Don't you see? If Dumbledore thought we'd just gotten carried away, that we let it slip and thought it would be funny and I meant to stop him before he ever got close to you, I figured he wouldn't expel us...and he didn't. But if he thought Sirius actually meant to...and I just found out by accident..." James trailed off uncertainly. _

_Remus continued to look at him. James fidgeted uncomfortably, then threw a sharp glance over his shoulder at Sirius, who was standing mutely behind him. James raised his eyebrows, and Sirius blinked and cleared his throat. _

_"Remus," he said in an unsteady voice. _

_Slowly, Remus' gaze traveled to rest on Sirius. _

_"Is that what really happened?" he said finally, in a voice barely above a whisper. "You let it slip?" _

_Sirius squirmed restlessly under Remus' intense stare. "It was an accident," he mumbled, staring at his feet. James looked at Sirius for a moment longer, as though waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, James turned back to Remus with a small sigh. _

_"I don't think Dumbledore completely believed me, anyway, but he didn't say anything. He just gave us all detention...I had to do it. You understand, don't you Moony?" he asked earnestly. _

_Remus closed his eyes, unbidden thoughts running through his mind... _

...I could have been a murderer... I could have given someone else this curse... I could have been kicked out, imprisoned, executed...but at least Sirius won't be expelled...

_He opened his eyes again. _

_"Yes, James. I undertand."_

Alone in his cell, Remus took the last sip of his potion and set down the empty goblet. What are friends for, he told himself, if not to help each other out of tight situations. To protect one another. To always be there for each other, no matter what the circumstances were.

"_Look, Harry, your father was the best friend I ever had._"

Well, that was certainly true, Remus thought wryly. They _had_ been the best of friends, and they had surely been the best friends Remus had ever had. He glanced around the empty cell and smiled sardonically to himself.

"With friends like these..." he said aloud.

The moon took him before he could finish the thought.


End file.
